EU policy to burn more wood will ‘fuel climate change’

Inefficiencies in harvesting and burning processes mean that more carbon is emitted into the air per kilowatt hour of electricity than when fossil fuels are burntJOHANNES SIMON/GETTY

An EU push to promote the burning of wood as an environmentally friendly “renewable fuel” will increase greenhouse gas emissions and risks damaging global forests, a study has warned.

The EU recently revised its energy policy in an effort to double the use of renewable sources by 2030. Against the advice of hundreds of scientists who said that the move would accelerate climate change, they created new incentives to view wood as a low-carbon fuel.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, said that the provision would lead to increased harvesting of global woodland. Already countries with tropical forest, including Brazil and Indonesia, have voiced a commitment to follow the EU example.

The use of wood to fuel power plants could cause EU energy…

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